Here’s is me trying to document winning NA Championship at GenCon

The List ( Auto-Win )

Prep and army building:

So. This army is a culmination of how I play runewars. It has a bit of everything. Two fast melee units that help dictate the battle in the berserkers and Ravos. Two slower, reactive units that respond to the way the battle unfolds and plug gaps or help fold a flank. One unit for technical work in the Rippers.

I built the list using feedback from ConscientiousObjector and Jukey. Originally, the berserkers were 6 trays and the 20 free points were bouncing between another solo thresher, a second ripper unit, or a larger ripper unit. I also considered dropping the Rippers to make a third Zoidberg. On Jukey’s feedback I kept the rippers as a combination token grabber, deepstrike archer interceptor, and hero distractor. ConscientiousObjector was insistent that the 6 tray berserkers weren’t putting out enough damage to be a threat, so I went with a 9tray to get a front line Thresher.

As as for prep for NA Champs - I didn’t get to. I prepped this list for FFGHQ Regionals and had no chance to get a game in between then and GenCon. So I stuck with what I knew. I guess I was going with a list that I had posted online, that already had a name ( Auto-Win , *snort*), and that I already knew some others players were trying, and had been dissected on podcast(s?). Which means it was a known quantity to other competitive players, which isn’t a great starting point.

Game 1 - Peggy (Meeting Engagement, Volatile Runes)

Game one was against a 3 dial Daqan list. She had:

-Kari/Fortuna’s/Wraith

-6 tray Oathsworne/Hawthorne/Wind/MoI

-9 tray Spearmen/FL Golem/Citadel/Shield/Metered

This was the first match of the day. Cool. I’m actually doing this. She deployed the Cav on my left and the Spears to my right with Kari between them. They maybe had two trays worth of gap between the big blocks. I had my berserkers across from the Spears and my Rippers to their right. Ravos in the middle and my threshers on the left.

The really noteworthy events: she moved her Kari up unexpectedly. This meant when my Ravos collided with her he landed on a token, she took one and he took three wounds (from volatile). Early the next turn Kari Wraith Stepped behind Ravos to deny him rerolls, a lucky roll put two wounds on her so Ravos could eat her end of turn. The other noteworthy moment was my Berserkers lucking out and sniping the Citadel Weapons master. Between that and dice rolling heavily in my favor, the berksers actually took down the Spears effectively.

I tabled her army and she killed a Thresher model and enough berserkers for it to count as a 6 tray. 177 point MoV for a 10-1 win.

Game 2 - Justin C (Unprepared, Demoralize)

Game 2 was against a well balanced Daqan list. It seemed to have a bit of something for everything.

-Kari with Fortuna’s and Wraith step

-3 tray crossbows with Rank, Tempered

-1 tray Rune golem

-6 tray Spears with Dispatch, The imitative banner figure, Rallying

-6 tray Oathsworne with Raven, Column tactics

Alright. So my history facing Daqan as Uthuk isn’t promising. Looking at his list, it’s clear that this one is more than just the sum of its parts. A lot of everything supports everyone. Dispatch Runner means I have to flatten the most frightening hammer as fast as I can.

I got choice of deployments and gave him the shallow end. We both deployed fairly tight to the right side of the map with Ransacked Manor between us.. His forces from left to right were Kari, Crossbows, Golem, Spears, oathsworne. Mine were almost face to face and were Thresher, Ripper, Thresher, Berserkers, Ravos.

I think he underestimated Ravos just a bit in round 1. Ravos managed to get to a nice spot where he couldn’t be charged and had a flank charge lined up. Because Dispatch was right next to the cavalry, I had to bring my berserkers in at stupid ludicrous speed and force him to honor that threat. My Threshers jumped into the terrain and set to charge Kari on turn 2. My Rippers and leftmost Thresher shifted around to get just outside of ranged attacks. His golem moved up.

Turn 2 involved the oathsworne getting smashed badly by berserkers and Ravos. His cavalry and Spears began taking my berserkers apart. My threshers got a charge off and rolled garbage. Putting a wound on Kari before eating her and crossbows. My Rippers jumped into terrain. My other Threshers tried to close in on Kari.

Turn 3. Play of the game: The Rippers charged the flank of the Rune golem and one-shot it. After the game, he laid out that his plans had been to use Kari’s surges to kill the tray of Rippers touching the golem so it could late charge my berserkers. At two Stable runes and a flank, that could have been a game changer.

The rest of the game was some standard play and a decidedly non-standard bloodbath. The noteworthy part here was his ability to keep me from killing his crossbows by using terrain. In the end, turn 8 was me ransacking the manor and watching the crossbows fly away.

I won the combat side of the game by 32 points, racked up 60 in objectives, and 10 from the manor. Who. An 8-3 win. I’m now at 18 points for the day.

Game 3 - Alain (Stand-Off, Confluence)

Alain had some very beautiful elves on the table.

-2X 4tray Leonx with MOI

-2X 2tray Deepwoods with Tempered

-4tray scions with Vicious Roots

-Ambush Packleader Aliana.

He deployed his elves in a very tight pack. We had three capacity 2+ terrain in a row near the middle of the table. He said later he underestimated the Uthuk ability to go in and out of terrain. Turn 1was me planting Ravos and both Thresher into terrain. My ripper moved up against his Leonx and presented a big target. He unpacked but ran into issues moving with Aliana. Ravos use Hunger to point towards the center of his formation.

Turn 2 was a rather ugly lesson in Scuttling horror when both Zoidbergs jumped out to line up charges. His right side Leonx whiffed and got charged by my threshers and I flank charged one of his archers. My Rippers took a Leonx charge to allow my berserkers to line up a flank charge on his leftmost Leonx.

Ravos eventually threaded the needle and hit the Scions. The second archers died to my threshers. My berserkers didn’t do anything else besides kill the Leonx. His Aliana killed a thresher unit and escaped. His right side Leonx, after taking a charge from Threshers, proceeded to give me a master class in how bad it can suck facing well played Leonx. They killed my Thresher and left.

End of game was Ravos just barely catching Aliana for a kill and the Leonx get away.

Final score was 8-3 to me. I forget MoV

Game 4 - Aaron from Runecasters (Meeting Engagement(?), Confluence)

I’m getting long winded and I’m sure you guys will get a good breakdown on the next Runecasters podcast.

Final 8-3 to me.

Top Cut Round 1 - Dustin (Meeting Engagement, Volatile Runes)

Cool. My first Waiqar opponent.

-Ankaur with Fortuna’s and Violent Forces

-2 tray thresher

-2 tray Death Knights with Obcasium

-4 tray Archers with CQT and Corruption Rune

-6 tray Archers with CQT and Corruption Rune

This deployment got weird. Bone totem and I think Swamp were in the middle, about range 3 apart. Totem on the left. I placed all my tokens far left. He placed his in the middle.

He set the threshers to go into the middle, Ankaur just to the left, the 6 tray anchoring the left. His 4tray to the right. I deployed my Threshers in the middle, my Rippers facing the swamp, and Ravos in the right corner angled in at 45 degrees to see what he did. He deployed his death knights extreme right as a threat to Ravos. I decided I wasn’t having any of it and deployed my berserkers to the right.

Yeah... so I sent my Berserkerstar to kill death knights because I didn’t want gauntlet on Ravos. It worked, a perfect roll meant that on turn 3 I smashed the knights in a swing before he could attack once. In the meantime, the threshers he brought moved into the middle of the terrain and made a rather unfortunate blocker. If I came and charged him, I get dismantled by archers. My Rippers lept forward because I kind of forgot how well CQT can work. A combination of Ankaur adding 4trays, Corruption Rune, and CQT meant that my Rippers died after reducing a four tray archer unit down to a... 7 tray archer unit.... crap.

After a few turns of delay and having my berserkers and Ravos get into position, I started moving the leftmost thresher all the way around the totem. Once all units were roughly on target, I charged all three paths. My berserkers caught face to face with his 7 tray archers, my left Thresher caught the 6 tray, my center thresher went after his thresher. Ravos tried to thread the needle between the middle threshers and the 7 tray archers to get at Maro.

NEARLY PLAY OF THE GAME: With one blue Rune, Ankaur was set to do 8 damage. He set i2 skills on both a4chers. His corruption runes both laid immobilize on Ravos, but neither did a wound. Had they both wounded and immobilized Ravos, Ankaur would have dropped him to 1wound. Easy for a next turn corruption Rune to finish. Ankaur ended up blowing away two trays of berserkers instead .

After that, Insatiable Hunger got Ravos into range and he ate Ankaur. The rest of the game was a bloody mop up the killed a good number of berserkers and a Thresher.

Wooot. I’m going to the finals.

Final - TGall (Stand Off, Confluence):

Well, now I have to face my first Uthuk opponent of the weekend. He brought:

-Ravos with Viscera and Hunger

-4 tray Rippers with dead sprint

-2X 2Tray Threshers

-6 tray berserkers with Dispatch. Tempered, and a rallying shrieker(?)

We had a crumbling wall to the left and a blighted ground just to the right of it. I honestly don’t remember where the other piece was. It didn’t affect much. THall deployed in an interesting fortress formation. Berserkers in the back, a Thresher point about 4t degrees outwards on both corners of the berserkers. He put his ripper well off to the right. Once Imwas done deploying, He put Ravos far to my left.

i deployed the threshers in the middle, Rippers on the left, Ravos to the right, and put my berserkers across from his Rippers.

Turn 1: 4 unstable runes. Wooh. I shifted all my units around and went nowhere except for except for berserkers and Ravos. My berserkers got within distance 1 of his Rippers after they activated. Ravos used a 2 shift and dogged it behind and to their side. He moved a Thresher 8nto the CWall. His Ravos careened forward and maximum speed.

Turn 2: His Thresher left terrain early and jammed my Rippers’, who were set to charge Ravos. My left Thresher shifted forward between terrain. My right Thresher and his right Thresher continued derping around. His Ravos charged and nearly one shot the Rippers.

NOTE: For the next 4 turns, his Rippers punch up hard and work my nine tray down to 3 trays before they finally died. I’m not gonna detail this except to say it sucked.

Turn 3: I scuttled into the CWall with the left Thresher and got a pretty solid swing on his Thresher. Killing one, applying a stun and causing flee in terror. His Ravos arced towards the blighted ground and eventually used hunger to go in it. My Ravos arced around to the side of his right Thresher while my right Thresher did a 4march to collide with his and pin them in place.

Turn 4/5/6: A bit fuzzy. Basically, I used a stun to stop his left Thresher from leaving the CWall, his Ravos rallied and then left the terrain to flank charge and hurt my right threshers. My Ravos smoked his threshers. My left Threshers leg tterrain and charged his berserkers. Killing three trays and then dying because of some bad choices on my part and tempered steel on his. My berserkers reform after killing his Rippers on the previous turn and marchhad towards the fight.

Turn 7: I made a point to acknowledge that at this moment we both had a solo, unharmed thresher, a wounded Ravos, and a 3x1 left of our berserkers. I nearly killed his entire berserker formation with Ravos in a swing, but left one figure in the farthest tray. His Ravos then killed my Thresher. With those 4 unstable, I charged with the berserkers and hit his Ravos’ flank, killing him. At this point I had my 3xq and Ravos. He had a berserker and a Thresher.

Turn 8: He uses Dispatch on his solo berserker and smokes my Ravos before He can activate and that’s the last thing that mattered. Final score was 3 points in my favor.

EDIT: More details can be provided per request. Just let me know

Very nice write up, thanks.